"David Gemmel - Sipstrassi Tales 03 - Bloodstone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

BLOODSTONE

DEDICATION
Bloodstone is dedicated with love to Tim and Dorothy Lenton for the gift of friendship, and for shining a
light on the narrow way at a time when all I could see was darkness.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks to my editors John Jarrold at Random and Stella Graham in Hastings, and to my copy editor
Jean Maund, and test reader Val Gemmell. I am also grateful for the help so freely offered from fellow
writers Alan Fisher and Peter Ling. And to the many fans who have written during the years demanding
more tales of Jon Shannow - my thanks!

FOREWORD
There is something about the character and personality of Jon Shannow that leaves people loving or
loathing him. Sometimes both emotions are aroused simultaneously. It is hard to pin down the reasons.
There is an iron quality about Jon Shannow that is admirable and worthy in a lone knight riding through a
savage world. The decisions he makes are based solely on what he sees and experiences. He lives with a
code of honour that refuses to allow evil to rage unchecked. He will always seek to defend the weak
against predators.
Offset against this is his capacity for violence, and his certainty that his actions are right. It is just such
certainty that can lead to horrors like the Spanish Inquisition, the butchery of the Aztecs, the burning at
the stake of Catholics and Protestants, and the vileness of the Holocaust. When ruthless men are certain
then the gulags and the concentration camps follow.
I have tried to present Jon Shannow as a flawed man in a flawed world. There is more to him than the
nature of his deeds, just as I hope there is more to the stories than simple adventures of good versus evil.
The tales have a spiritual centre not based exclusively on any recognised religion or creed. For me the
message is simple, though I know from conversation and correspondence with fans that the underlying
sub-text is very often - though not always -misunderstood.
But what is of enormous value to me is that Bloodstone sprang from the inter-action between myself and
the readers. For some years the weight of mail was light, and I was able to respond to every fan who
took the trouble to write. Increasing letters meant I could reply only to first time writers. Now even that
has become difficult. But every letter is read by me, and often the points made will find their way into
subsequent stories. This is especially true of Bloodstone.
The questions from readers that prompted the novel were many. One young fan wrote to ask whether
Shannow was a symbol for the way I thought society should behave, as Forrest Gump is said to be a
symbol for America. Others talked of the nature of legends, or the lack of a spiritual centre in politics.
One wrote saying that, while he enjoyed the novels, he hated Shannow because he was the epitome of
men like the Ayatollah Khomeini. Can you imagine, he asked, what any society would be like if a man
like Shannow ever had power?
Could I imagine that? Yes I could. Bloodstone is the result and concludes the story of Jon Shannow.
I do not believe there will be another. Though I don't doubt there's a fan in Liverpool who knows better.
David A. Gemmell Hastings, 1995614
 PROLOGUE
I have seen the fall of worlds and the death of nations. From a place in the clouds I watched the colossal
tidal wave sweep towards the coastline, swallowing the cities, drowning the multitudes.
The day was calm at first, but I knew what was to be. The city by the sea was awakening, its roads
choked with vehicles, its sidewalks full, the veins of its subways clotted with humanity.
The last day was painful, for we had a congregation I had grown to love, peopled with Godly folk,
warm-hearted and generous. It is hard to look down upon a sea of such faces and know that within a
day they will be standing before their Maker.